POTSDAM  —  A performance warranty has set ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Inc. charging toward the commercial market.

The biomass-gasification technology company, headquartered at Clarkson University’s Peyton Hall Incubator in Potsdam, is working with a German firm to build turn-key biomass power plants. The plants are a big step because they will come with warranties guaranteeing the amount of power they will produce, according to ZeroPoint CEO John Gaus.

“Our commercial joint effort represents the first biomass-gasification power plants offered into the marketplace with a performance warranty, which will make the plants infinitely more financeable,” he says.

Power plants are typically built with performance warranties by a prime contractor or engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) vendor, according to Gaus. But biomass-gasification plants have not carried those warranties because EPC vendors were not comfortable with the new technology’s ability to deliver the promised amount of energy. That in turn made it difficult to find financing for biomass-gasification projects.

For ZeroPoint, that’s changing as the firm works with Essen, Germany–based Envirotherm GmbH. Envirotherm is a subsidiary of Allied Resource Corp. of Wayne, Pa., with a focus on engineering.

The two companies are designing standardized turn-key power plants as small as 2 MW and as large as 14 MW that feature ZeroPoint’s technology, according to Gaus. Envirotherm will be the EPC vendor behind building the plants, he says.

“It’s all thermal-chemical conversion of biomass into gas,” Gaus says. “ZeroPoint is providing that enabling biomass-gasification technology.”

Eight of the standardized power plants are currently slated to be built — six in Europe and two in North America. Construction is set to begin on one of the plants before the end of the year, and work is likely to start on another four plants next year, according to Gaus. Confidentiality agreements prevent him from releasing more information on the projects, he says.

Biomass-gasification plants typically cost about $4 million per megawatt of installed capacity, Gaus says. That price can differ depending on variables such as the power plant’s site, though.

Two plants in Europe already operate using ZeroPoint’s technology, Gaus adds. They are located in Germany and Ireland and are approved to generate up to 5 MW. However, they were not built using standardized turn-key designs and do not carry performance warranties.

The existing and planned biomass-gasification generators utilizing ZeroPoint’s technology run on woody biomass. Woody biomass includes chipped wood, recovered waste wood, and virgin wood, according to Gaus. Interest in biomass gasification is strongest in Europe but will likely grow in the rest of the world, he says.

“Most of the biomass opportunity is in Europe right now, so a lot of our team is spending a good two weeks a month in Europe,” he says. “We’re looking at a vastly larger pipeline in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.”

ZeroPoint employs eight people based at its U.S. headquarters, and Gaus expects the firm to hire three or four more people within six months. Its headquarters is about 500 square feet leased from Clarkson University that is largely used for payroll and administrative work — employees currently spend most of their time onsite at the company’s projects in Europe.

The biomass-gasification firm also has 15 employees based in a satellite office at Schwarze Pumpe Industry Park near Spremberg, Germany. That satellite office was added in an acquisition ZeroPoint completed six months ago, according to Gaus. He declined to share any other details about the transaction.

Gaus also declined to disclose revenue totals or projections for ZeroPoint. He founded the company six years ago as a research project at Clarkson University along with Philip Leveson, who has a doctorate focused on oxygen enrichment of combustion systems.

In addition to its woody-biomass technology, ZeroPoint is testing palm biomass and working on upgrading sewer sludge and digestate from anaerobic digesters for gasification.

The company contracts primarily with New York companies to produce components for its technology, according to Gaus.

“We’re doing business with New York state manufacturers and exporting,” he says.       

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com